


From The Ground Up

by misssnowfox



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Heartbreak, Light Angst, Past Relationship(s), Romance, Single Parents, the one where kiyoko is a single mama and tanaka unwillingly falls for her and her three little ones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25032028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misssnowfox/pseuds/misssnowfox
Summary: “Tell me it at least worked?” Noya says. “That she saw past it and saw how awesome and manly you are and fell into your arms?”“Oh, sure she did,” he says. Noya perks up like a rabbit looking for a carrot. “She fell right into my arms and asked me to carry her away, when her three kids came into the room crying for their mommy.”___Sometimes the things you need come in the most unexpected packages. Even if those packages come in the shape of the beautiful upstairs neighbour and her three little ones.
Relationships: Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Ryuunosuke
Comments: 28
Kudos: 49





	From The Ground Up

The regular routine. Shoes, keys, jacket.

It still seems familiar even after six months away. Even though he’s coming home to an apartment that’s not even technically his. Although Noya had made a point of clearing out most of his things before letting him move in, and now that he’s been here a few days, it’s already started to feel a little more normal and homely. Granted, that could be six months of travelling talking. You learn to feel at home very quickly when you’re constantly on the move. 

But he’d bought a potted plant the first couple of days he’d been back; apparently that’s something people should have in their homes. And the apartment already feels more like his place now that it has his things in it: his hoodies hanging on the hook, his favourite flavour of protein shake in the kitchen cupboard, the photo on his desk that he still physically can’t put away in the draw even though he needs to. 

It’s not a big place, but then again, Noya isn’t a big guy, so he probably didn’t take up much space while he was here. Mostly, Tanaka is just grateful to have somewhere to come back to at all. 

Although, judging by the way that Noya basically threw the keys at him (metaphorically) with a, _“Here, you can stay in my apartment while you look for your own place!”_ Tanaka has a feeling he was doing it less out of the kindness of his own heart - even if he is one of the kindest people Tanaka has ever met - and more out of the sheer joy of finally having a ‘logical’ excuse to move in with Asahi. 

_“It’s only temporary!”_ he’d said when they spoke on the phone a few weeks ago. Tanaka had smirked the entire time, because unlike Noya, _he_ still remembers when the two of them had first started going out and Noya couldn’t stop talking about how they would just _“see how it goes”_ and that it wasn’t necessarily _“serious”_. As Noya’s best friend - _platonic life partner,_ as Noya reminds him - he’d known from the first moment that Noya mentioned Asahi to him that he was already halfway to being in love with him. 

The apartment had been mostly empty as soon as they’d started dating anyway, most likely because it may be perfectly big enough for one person, but he’s not sure how much fun it would be to hang here non stop with someone else. Asahi doesn’t live right in the middle of Sendai and the luxury of that decision is that his place actually has a bedroom. Noya had probably already been slowly but surely keeping his things at Asahi’s place without even realising he was doing it. Once he’d moved all of his personal belongings out, he’d apparently found a half-eaten pizza under the sofa bed; just one of the pieces of furniture he left behind to make Tanaka’s life that much easier while he spent time looking for a job.

He flops down on the sofa bed with a heavy sigh. Not a very successful job hunting day, but there’s bound to be a travel agency that will call him back eventually. He can’t wait to get stuck into his old routine again. Now that he has some firsthand travel experience too, he’s bound to get more customers and commission than before. 

He pulls out his phone and to check the time and scrolls mindlessly through his social media. He goes through his Instagram and still scrolls past the volleyball accounts that he still hasn’t unfollowed, even though looking at them puts him in a bad mood for the rest of the day. He doesn’t function well when he’s in a bad mood. 

He checks his messages and cringes when he’s reminded of the three missed calls he’d made a few days prior after his welcome home get together with Saeko and his family and one too many shots. 

He needs to delete the phone number. As if it would do any good. He’s had it memorised for so long now, he couldn’t forget it if he tried. Unless she’s changed her phone number in the last year. Part of him hopes she has. 

As he stares at the phone number, wondering just how much it would ruin his life if he pressed the call button one last time, he’s interrupted by the tiny little _thump thump thump_ sounds from upstairs that he’s gotten so used to hearing in the last two days. Barely there noises, but present enough to be just this side of irritating. It sounds like a dozen feet running around and it always starts in the evening.

He’s still not managed to talk to anyone in the building in the week he’s been here - he’s not even had a chance to see Noya or any of his friends, let alone his neighbours - and he knows the walls are pretty thin, but it seems like a bad omen if his first impression of his upstairs neighbours is pure irritation. 

As usual, the thumping turns to a muffled sound of slightly raised voices. High pitched, but unrecognisable as anyone in particular. He doesn't even know how many people there are living in that apartment, but if it’s just the one, they deserve a medal for successfully holding the world record for how much noise a single human can make. He’d always thought he and Noya held that record for better or for worse. Looks like he may have a contender after all. 

With a loud sigh, he flicks on the small TV and lets whatever shitty cooking show that’s on at this hour fill the small space around him. It’s not like it will actually do him any good when it comes to his culinary skills (of which there are none), but he loves having colour and movement and something to look at while he’s in the apartment on his own. 

When the low volume of the TV does nothing to drown out the thumping - are they having a dance class up there?! - he puts on his wireless headphones and starts blasting one of his favourite rock tunes. 

Living up to his name as a city-dwelling bachelor, he dances around in his sorry excuse for a kitchen - a sink, a fridge, just enough cupboard space to fit a glass and a fork, and an ironing board that often doubles up for counter space - while he waits for his readymade curry to warm up.

* * *

The shouting and stomping actually finish at a decent hour and he manages to get a good night’s sleep, before waking up at 5am to go for a run. 

He never used to be a morning person, would always show up to work at the last minute, much to the chagrin of his seniors. And it’s certainly not an hour of the morning he prefers to be up if he doesn’t have to, especially since he’s often too hyper to go to bed early. But having spent six months travelling around Asia, he’s gotten used to having the entire world at his doorstep - quite literally, sometimes - and spending his days in a tiny apartment can feel a little stifling after only a week back at home. Going out for a run before the day has properly begun doesn’t exactly replicate getting to watch the sunrise on the beaches of Thailand, but it’s certainly a relaxing way to wake up nonetheless. 

He runs straight into the entrance of the apartment building, his headphones still blasting music into his ears. He jogs up to one of the communal mailboxes and hops from one foot to the other, trying to quieten the spasming in his thigh muscles from their exertion. He can feel his t-shirt soaking the fabric of his hoodie and sweat pooling behind his ears and under his socks. It’s equal parts exhilarating and _gross_.

He starts singing whatever song is dancing around his ears as he checks his mail, his bounces from foot to foot becoming rhythmic in time with the music until he’s practically conducting his own karaoke performance in front of his mailbox. 

He grabs whatever letters are still being mailed for Noya as well as a couple that now have his name on them, closes the doo,r and turns to head back towards the stars. The second he turns, he sees a flash of black hair and stops in his tracks. 

For a devastating, heart-stopping moment, he thinks it’s her. 

And then once his treacherous instinct gets put in check, he notices that this woman’s hair is slightly too long, that she’s wearing glasses, that she’s considerably shorter and her build seems a little smaller, even if he can’t really tell that much through the clothes she’s wearing. 

But he barely registers all of that, because once he’s recognised the woman as not being Kanoka, he looks at her face, takes in her slightly widened eyes and feels his feet fuse with the ground beneath him. Not just because of the tiny point of her nose and the fact that her glasses make her look sophisticated. Not because her hair looks like it could be made of water with how smooth it seems. But because by the way she’s standing there, her own mail in hand, eyes locked onto him and unmoving, it’s pretty obvious that she just saw his improvised dance routine and heard his horrific singing voice that no doubt sounded a lot louder in reality than through his own ears. 

The woman nods her head just the tiniest bit almost as if in greeting and her body becomes even smaller somehow. With the way she’s begun to blush, it’s clear that she’s embarrassed by him. That thought alone un-sticks his feet from the floor. 

He fights his own urge to blush and offers a quick and aggressive bow, before striding towards the stairs as casually as he can manage. All he wants is to break out into a run.

Once he’s closed his front door and let out a deep, relieved breath, he’s grimly reminded as to why in all the time he spent abroad, he wasn't able to get one girl to sleep with him. He tells himself it’s something to do with his personality rather than the crippling ache he feels over the thought of asking another girl out even though he knows he technically wants to. Possibly.

As he changes out of his sweaty clothes and showers, he’s forced to reconcile himself with the fact that he’s probably the only single guy to have gone travelling and been laid _less_ than before he left.

At least he has a talent for some things. 

* * *

That night, he finally sets up his game console. He barely has room for it and his TV is kind of small, but it’s one of those essential items that he’s willing _make_ fit if he has to. He’s so proud of himself for finally adding the finishing touch to his temporary home that he calls Noya and asks him to make himself useful and bring some beers over. 

He shows up an hour later with _several_ beers, which Tanaka subtly puts away in the fridge for another time. As tempting as it would be to get absolutely shitfaced with his best friend, he still has job hunting to do in the morning. The last thing he needs is a hangover; something which is inevitable if Noya is left in charge of alcohol consumption. 

As soon as the beers are safely stowed away, Noya runs at him and wraps his tiny arms and legs around his entire body as though he’s a koala and Tanaka is the tree. 

“I missed you so much, man!” he says. Tanaka has a feeling he hears the tearfulness to his voice. 

“Dude, stop that, you’ll set me off.” 

Because he _has_ missed Noya. Growing up, he’d always been told that there are certain things you don’t miss until they’re taken away from you. Missing Kanoka during his travels and trying to unlearn the clench in his chest every time he would wake up and she still wasn’t there next to him was a type of emptiness he still doesn’t know that he’s able to deal with. But missing his friends - missing _Noya_ \- has been something else entirely. Tanaka has felt his absence like a missing limb, but a limb that he knew would grow back. He might not have been able to share any of those life-changing experiences with his best friend, but he knew that he’d be right here waiting for him and ready to indulge in Tanaka’s stories vicariously the second he got back. 

They manage to pull themselves together and Noya gives the place a once over, hands on his hips and lips curved up in a smile. 

“I like what you’ve done with the place!” he says. 

“It looks the same as it did when you left it.”

“Hmm, no, this plant wasn’t here before,” he points accusingly at the pot in question. “I would know, I killed all the plants that Asahi ever bought me.”

Tanaka cackles and slaps him on the back. 

“Was he not free to come by?” 

“He has a book club or something tonight. And anyway, it’s not like all three of us would fit in here,” a devious smile crosses his face. “I would know, I tried to have a threesome in here once.”

“ _Seriously_?!” 

“Yeah, _tried_ , being the important word there. Anyway, don’t look so impressed, I bet you had all sorts of fun in the last six months, eh, eh?” 

He gives Tanaka a few playful stabs to the side of his ribs, his tongue poking out of his mouth in mischief. Of all the things that have changed or broken or moved, at least this will always be one of his constants. 

Tanaka laughs and bats Noya away with relative ease, before feeling his throat constrict. He’s never been great at lying. “Oh yeah, sure… you know how it is…” Noya has always been pretty perceptive and good at spotting other people’s bullshit, but luckily he’s too busy glancing around the rest of the room to tell that Tanaka has probably gone red and is the physical representation of a bare-faced lie. 

“Jesus Christ,” he hears him say. Noya then turns around from whatever he was looking at and his face is already more serious - as serious as his face is able to get, anyway. 

In an attempt to play his lie as cool as possible, it takes Tanaka a moment to see what he was looking at before his eyes go wide and he sighs as he sees the framed photo sitting on the table behind Noya’s head. 

“You don't think maybe now is a good time to retire this picture?” Noya says in a low voice, still kind, despite the months of frustration Tanaka knows must be behind it.

He feels his shoulders slump as he drags himself over to the picture and lays it flat on its front. “Yeah, maybe,” he murmurs, but doesn’t put it away. 

Noya, to his credit, doesn’t say another word, but he fills the room with enough silence that he might as well be screaming at the top of his lungs at how stupid Tanaka is. 

They order pizza and play games and it’s just like every happy, carefree memory he has from high school. He can still beat Noya’s ass at almost any game, even after all these years. 

“You’re so awesome at this, Ryuu!” he squawks, tossing the controller to the floor. 

He smirks and stretches with a loud obnoxious yawn. 

Now that the game is paused, he can hear noises from upstairs again. Not the same pattering of feet and shouting as last night, but a bizarre quiet clanging and squeaking that’s getting just on the right side of his nerves. 

“Jeeze,” Noya winches. “That sounds rough.”

“Walls like fucking paper,” Tanaka sighs, rubbing his face with his hands. That 5am wakeup call is definitely starting to hit him. 

Noya smirks. “Bet that makes jerking off a pain in the ass.”

Tanaka huffs out a laugh, tired but carefree. “As if I could concentrate with that going on. How the hell did you manage living here for years? Especially once you got a boyfriend.”

Noya laughs. “You don’t wanna know, man. Maybe after a few more beers.” He pulls a funny face and looks like he might laugh again. “Anyway, you sure you’re doing it right? You really need to _concentrate_?”

“Maybe some of us are a bit more cultured.”

Noya barks out one of his bright, nasally laughs that are definitely too loud for the walls in this apartment. Tanaka wonders how delighted the neighbours might have been to see the back of him, only to feel the despair when the realised Noya’s replacement is pretty well matched with him on the volume front. Even though he has tried to be a good neighbour the majority of the time.

“Suuuure,” Noya laughs. “Don’t try and bullshit me, I used to sleep next to you at training camp back in the day, remember?” 

Tanaka smiles and feels it in his entire body. Ten years since the two of them had started high school. Ten years since they’d acknowledged each other with pure suspicion for a total of fifteen minutes, before deciding that they would never be parted from each other again. He has those memories to hang onto at least. Not every memory has to be about her. 

He reaches over to ruffle Noya’s hair, which very quickly ends up in a wrestling match - or as close to one as they can manage in the tiny space - before the annoying sound from upstairs starts once more. 

“I’m gonna go see what the racket is about this time,” Tanaka says, getting to his feet. 

“Want me to come with you? Take some names?” He makes a fierce face that has somehow always managed to scare people despite how tiny he is. Not that Tanaka would ever tell him that. He does actually value his life. 

“No, it’s fine, I’ll only be a minute. Go text Asahi, you think I can’t see you dying to check your phone.” 

Noya seizes up in his attempt not to blush.

“And anyway,” Tanaka says as he walks out the front door, puffing out his chest in what he hopes is his most _serious_ gesture. “I need to establish myself as the dominant male around here. Can’t have you stealing my thunder.”

“Thunder?!” Noya squeaks. Tanaka rushes out into the hallway and closes the door to at least try and mitigate some of the damage he’s caused by unleashing the full volume of Noya’s _ROOOOOLLING THUUUUUNDEEEEER_ onto his neighbours.

* * *

He knocks on the door of the upstairs apartment in full-blown Tanaka Mode, ready to cause some chaos. His patience has never been anything to write home about and two nights of this is already testing it. 

It takes quite a few seconds, to the point where he thinks he’s being ignored. But just as he’s about to bang on the door even harder and demand to be heard, it opens, leaving him standing stunned and frozen with his fist in midair. 

Because standing in front of him, short enough that he has to lower his eyes slightly, is the woman from the mailbox this morning. Except now, she’s dressed in casual house clothes, slippers, and is holding some sort of tool in one hand. 

The part of his brain that is still capable of forming rational thought tells him that she also looks pretty surprised to see him. He then realises how stupid he must look with his fist in the air and lowers his arm, putting both hands behind his back. 

“Can I help you?” she says, her voice nasally and syrupy, but quiet. She barely moves her mouth as she speaks. 

“ _Oh,_ I uh…” he tries to remember why he came up here in the first place. “I-Is everything okay?” he blurts out. 

The lady doesn’t answer him, nor does her expression change much and Tanaka feels himself start to sweat. 

“I, uh… I heard a noise—” he brings a hand up to scratch the back of his head. 

Her eyebrows raise slightly at that and he sees her cheeks colour a little. “I’m sorry, was it too loud?” 

“N-No! No— you’re fine— I mean, the noise is fine— I mean, there was no noise!”

He needs to leave. He needs to find some plausible explanation for why he has to turn around and _go._

“I’m very sorry,” she murmurs. “My washing machine broke, I’ve been trying to fix it. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“You didn’t!” he says in a panicked tone. She could never have disturbed him. She looks like the physical manifestation of quiet and good and kind. It must have been Noya who suggested that she was being noisy. 

He makes a mad rush attempt to dig himself out of this hell hole that he’s caused. “M-maybe uh… maybe I could help?”

He literally feels his heart fall out of his ass in humiliation when she responds with a polite, “No thank you.”

He doesn’t have the time to lick his wounds, however, because there’s a strange noise coming from inside her apartment that makes her look over her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she says, looking back to him. “I’m going to have to go. I’ll make sure to keep the noise down.”

She offers a short bow, before closing the door. 

“What… the hell…” he whispers, before somehow finding his way back to his own apartment in a dazed state. 

When he closes his door behind him, he finds Noya in the middle of the room doing a headstand. God, he’s always been so effortlessly cool, even when they were just kids and even more so now. 

“Did you kick some ass?” he asks, hopping back up to a standing position. 

“Yeah…” Tanaka slurs. He doesn’t even know where to begin to explain to Noya what just happened. He’s barely able to comprehend that he just had an entire interaction with a woman that beautiful. 

He yawns, his brain power for the day apparently exhausted by his experience upstairs. 

“I should go,” Noya says. “You look like you’re about to drop.”

“Oh…” Tanaka sighs. He can already hear the quiet that Noya would leave behind in here. He’s the kind to leave a giant Noya-shaped hole in whatever space he vacates.

“Unless…” Noya says carefully. “You want me to stay?” 

Tanaka squirms on the spot and scratches his head. “Don’t be stupid, dude,” he mumbles. “Don’t you have kids to teach tomorrow?”

“It’s Golden Week, stupid. Anyway, it’ll be just like when we were kids! You still need to tell me all about the crazy shit you did when you were away.”

“Where the hell are you gonna sleep?” he asks, eternally grateful for his friend and his mindless insistence. 

“Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve spooned!” he says and lets out another belly laugh. Tanaka joins him, feeling all his remaining unease at going to sleep alone in the apartment disappear within seconds. 

* * *

He wakes up with Noya plastered to his side, drooling and snoring. That’s not actually what wakes him though; he’s been used to all sorts of noises in the years they all used to spend playing and travelling together in high school. What wakes him, is the feel of something wet dripping onto his nose. He manages to ignore the first couple, thinking it’s a fluke. And then just when he’s about to fall back to sleep, he feels another tiny drop.

He blinks his eyes open and rubs the sleep out of them, only to feel the drip onto his knuckles. He kicks Noya out of bed - literally - in order to stand up and check his phone to the sound of Noya’s surprised squawking in the background. It’s 7am. He really must have been tired. 

He looks up at the ceiling above his sofa bed and frowns at the definite leak that seems to be coming from the upstairs apartment.

He blushes furiously at the thought of having to go back up there to find out what’s happened, especially after his humiliating exchange last night. Maybe finding a new apartment would be easier?

“Jeez, Ryuu, did you wet yourself?” Tanaka looks down at the mattress to see what the leak has already started making a tiny wet patch on the sheets. 

“Shit,” he mutters. “Pass me a bowel or something? Or the plant, maybe?”

They scramble around for anything large enough to put as a placeholder for collecting the water and Tanaka groans, stretching out his back. 

“God, you must have really pissed off the guy upstairs,” Noya says. “He probably flooded his place just to spite you.”

Tanaka grunts and rubs his face, pulling himself together for what he knows is about to be a painful few minutes of his life. 

“Let’s get dressed, we should see what’s going on,” he mumbles. “If it’s what I think it is, I might need you to call Asahi.”

At the mention of his name, Noya instantly perks up, his sleep-addled grogginess apparently forgotten. 

They make their way to the upstairs apartment and when Tanaka visibly resists knocking on the front door, Noya frowns at him and does it for him.

It takes even longer for the door to open than it did last night, probably because of the carnage that must be happening inside. 

He doesn’t know why he’d hoped that his reaction would be any better today than it had been just hours ago. But he’s just as tongue tied the second she opens the front door. 

“M-Morning!” Noya squeaks next to him. 

Of course. As confident and self-assured as Tanaka knows Noya is around the guys he dates or around his friends, he’s always been an absolute sucker for a pretty girl. They both are. It’s one of the first things they bonded over when they met. 

The lady nods politely and then turns her attention to Tanaka. Even the slightest attention from her makes him feel like he’s been burnt. 

“Hello again,” he says. 

It’s only then that he takes in her slightly unbrushed hair and the sleepy look in her eye. She must have just woken up recently, or worse, _they_ woke her up and she put on her clothes in a mad rush to get to the door. 

“W-we, umm…” he starts, praying that Noya may be of some use. He isn't. “There’s a leak… downstairs, that is um… I think it’s coming from your… w-washing machine?”

She frowns and all of a sudden, Tanaka wishes he’d never said anything to put such a look of concern on her face. It doesn't look right there. She looks like she should only ever know smiles and happiness as opposed to worry. 

“Oh?” she says and retreats back into the apartment. “Please come in,” she whispers after them. 

It takes him a few seconds, but he manages to get his legs to move, even if they do feel like jelly.

“I’ll stand out here,” Noya says behind him and Tanaka could kill him. There’s plenty of room in the apartment for the three of them to stand comfortably. By the looks of things, the living area is slightly bigger than his own and there’s a closed door that seems to lead to an actual second room. 

He takes off his shoes and follows the lady without being told twice and she leads him to her bathroom, where she gently starts pulling her washing machine out from its tiny alcove. She crouches down and reaches behind it and scrunches up her nose in a way that makes him feel as though any bad feeling in the world could vanish just like that. 

“It’s wet,” she mutters, before standing up again. “It must have been leaking all night to come through your ceiling. I’m so sorry about this.”

“No!” He winces at how loud and aggressive it comes out. “I mean… it’s not your fault! My, uh… my friend… my friend’s boyfriend, he… he’s good with p-plumbing…” The implication of what he just said and how it sounded slaps his body like an electric shock and he starts waving his hands in front of him, borderline shrieking, “I mean, he fixes up houses! He’s good with pipes! Like, house pipes! H-he’ll—he’ll fix your machine for you!”

He has his eyes closed in humiliation, so he doesn’t see her reaction to his spectacular failure, but he hears a quiet, “That would be nice,” and peaks his eyes open to see that she’s offering him a neutral expression. 

He stands there for long seconds, before realising that she just agreed to let him help her. “R-right!” he says and strides out to where Noya is. Thankfully, she doesn’t follow him, because he’s as red as a tomato. 

Noya looks at him with a shit-eating grin. He’s always thought it was the coolest thing ever, except it’s never been turned on him like this before.

“Well, I can see you sorted things out just fine last night.”

“Shut up,” he mumbles. “Can you call Asahi, her washing machine is leaking. That’s technically _your_ ceiling by the way.”

Noya takes his phone out of his pocket and taps Asahi’s name without breaking his smirk for a second. 

“Hey babe,” he says. “You awake? Okay cool, any chance you could come by Tanaka’s apartment? His neighbour’s washer has sprung a leak and it’s pissing water out everywhere.”

It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but Tanaka is more shocked to hear him refer to the apartment as Tanaka’s, rather than as his old place. He’s only been living at Asahi’s for two or three _weeks_. 

It makes something in his stomach tighten like a vice. He should probably eat some breakfast. 

“Okay, he’ll be here soon,” he says. “More importantly…” he grabs Tanaka by the back of the neck and drags him to the other end of the corridor away from prying ears. “ _You_ need to ask her out.”

Tanaka nearly swallows his tongue. “Are you _insane_?! She’s like… one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen in my life!”

“Which is exactly why you need to do it! And if you don’t, _I_ will.”

“Aren’t you in a relationship?”

“Oh trust me, my boyfriend is a very happy man,” Noya smirks. Tanaka doesn’t doubt it, but now is not a good time to be feeling inadequate over his best friend’s sexual prowess. “But she’s a stunner, you’re an idiot if you don’t at least try.”

Except he doesn’t know how to do things like Noya can. Like so many of his other friends can. Dating and moving on like it’s nothing. He’s lost count of the number of times he’s tried to turn on the charms to see whether or not he can do something casual. 

And it’s failed every single time.

Flirting in his own language is an impossible task as it is and he has only Kanoka’s teenage optimism to thank for her having ever taken an interest in him in the first place. Trying to flirt with girls throughout his travels had gone even worse when he realised that it’s kind of hard to flirt and date and hook up when you can’t speak the same language, even if he wasn’t hindered by wishing they were all somebody else. And flirting in his pigeon English had ended so tragically the first time he tried that he just resigned himself to eternal failure. 

But Noya is the most charismatic person he knows, and if he can be trusted with anything, it’s with this. And he’s always said that the best approach is just to be kind, honest and straightforward. 

Noya could probably walk right back in there and ask her out like it’s nothing. They’d probably go on a few dates, watch some movies, just see where things take them. Noya probably wouldn't be crippled with thoughts of another woman hundreds of miles away in Tokyo 

“Right!” he says, and straightens up. “Right, okay.”

“Go get ‘em Ryuu!” Noya says and gives him a slap on the back. “I’ll be cheering from here!” he whispers. 

He strides back into the apartment, attempting a look that’s both purposeful and approachable. He’s been told he looks like a bit of a delinquent when he’s not smiling. As well as when he’s smiling. He’s been told he looks like a delinquent in _general_.

“So, uh… my friend is on his way….” he mumbles. The lady has since moved from her bathroom and into her kitchen area. She looks up from the plate she’s drying with a kind expression.

“That’s very kind of him, thank you. I’ll make him a snack.”

She slowly moves around the kitchen, scratching her nose now and then and it makes him physically ache.

Just a dinner. That’s all he has to do, just ask her if she wants to have dinner. It doesn’t need to be this hard. He’s just a guy. She’s a girl. It’s as simple as that. 

“You—” he starts. She looks up at him and whatever speech he had prepared disappears as quickly as it came. “M-maybe you’d like to get food while Asahi fixes your washing machine? It’s breakfast time. You’re really beautiful.” 

He remembers to tack it on at the end, because he’s pretty sure girls like compliments. Except now that it’s out of his mouth and he heard what it actually sounds like outside of his own thoughts, he wants to bury himself alive. 

“I mean—”

He doesn’t have the chance to correct himself, because the lady just mutters, “I’m sorry, I can’t.” Her lips curl up just the tiniest amount, even if her eyes look a little saddened. On another person, it might not even count as even a hint of a smile, but her expression has been so stoic the few times they’ve spoken, that even that tiny twitch makes her entire face look like it’s come alight. “Unless you’re willing to take a group?”

He’s absolutely sure he’s missed a step. Because there are no other people in this apartment besides the two of them. 

" _Oh_!” he realises. “No, no, Noya and Asahi won’t be coming. Noya’s my friend he’s… back there…” Tanaka turns around to see the corridor completely empty. Looks like Noya bolted just in time to make him look like he’s seeing things. 

He turns back and just as the lady goes to open her mouth, he hears a tiny whine coming from somewhere. The door to the supposed bedroom opens and he hears a tiny, “Mama?”

Tanaka looks down to where the sound is coming from and sees a tiny red-headed child padding out of the room, rubbing his eye. 

Tanaka feels the very soles of his feet shake. Because the kid isn’t alone. He’s holding the hand of a second one, this time a blonde girl, even smaller than the first kid. 

The lady puts down her plate, walks over to where the children are standing, and gets down to their level. 

“Hey, sweetheart, you okay?” 

The kid nods and announces in a quiet, nasally voice, “Hitoka wet the bed, what should we do?”

The lady closes her eyes and gives the closest thing to a real smile that Tanaka has seen on her thus far. But he’s not able to appreciate it, because just then, a third kid slides out of the room. He’s blond, like the girl who is currently sucking her thumb, and giving off a frown that even Tanaka’s not sure he’d be able to pull off at his most grumpy. 

“Mama, it’s wet,” the blond kid mutters. 

“I know, sweetheart, and just when we can’t wash the sheets too, right?”

“Three…” Tanaka whispers before he’s even had a chance to stop it. He takes in the surroundings for the first time that morning. Toys in the living room - plushies, cash registers, cars - baby clothes hanging on the back of a dining room chair, what looks like a carton of baby milk on the kitchen counter.

The lady looks up from her crouching position on the floor with an apologetic expression. 

“I’m very sorry you had to hear that,” she says, and takes the children by the hand. “If it’s okay with you, I’m afraid I’ll have to see to them, would you be able to send your friend up when he gets here? I’d be… I’d be very grateful.”

He stutters up a storm of something he thinks is agreement along with an apology as well as Asahi’s name mixed in somewhere there. The last thing he hears as he closes the door behind him is the sound of sniffling and quiet crying. 

* * *

“I had to get out of there, I couldn't physically watch it anymore!” Noya shouts once Tanaka finds him back downstairs in the apartment. They’ve had to put music on for a semblance of privacy in case the lady upstairs can hear them. “Who the hell confesses like that! I’d die for you man, but that was painful!”

“I was only following _your_ advice! ‘Honesty’ you’ve always said, right? She’s insanely beautiful, I thought it was bound to work!”

“Yeah, I did say that, but I was talking about how I ask _guys_ out! This is another universe.”

“I thought girls like it when guys are… you know… manly! When they say what they mean. _You_ said once that girls don’t like playing games!”

Noya throws his arms up in the air hysterically. “What are you listening to me for, when was the last time I managed to ask a girl out? I’m terrified of them!”

Tanaka just puts his head in his hands and begs for the earth to swallow him up. 

“Tell me it at least worked?” Noya says. “That she saw past it and saw how awesome and manly you are and fell into your arms?”

“Oh, sure she did,” he says. Noya perks up like a rabbit looking for a carrot. “She fell right into my arms and asked me to carry her away, when her three kids came into the room crying for their mommy.”

Noya blinks so loudly that Tanaka thinks he can almost _hear_ it. 

And then he almost collapses into uncontrollable cackles as he points at Tanaka and grabs his own belly with his other hand.

“Oh man!” he wheezes. “You sure know how to pick ‘em, don’t you?”

Tanaka balls up his fists and screws up his face, “ _You_ were the one who told me to talk to her!”

Noya finally recovers from his laughing fit and stands up straight, wiping a tear from his eye. “Ah well, being someone’s baby daddy at 25 can’t be _that_ bad, right?

“Are you insane?! You want her husband to kill me? He’s probably like over 6 feet tall and built like a truck.”

Noya’s eyes light up and Tanaka swears he even sees his spiked up hair twitch in excitement. “You could fight him for the honour!” he growls, punching the air in front of him. “Give him a bit of _that_ and show her that you’re worthy! We could put it on YouTube!”

He knows that he’s only joking, but in all honesty, the way Noya describes it does make it sound ridiculously awesome. It would be like going into battle and then coming out victorious for everyone to fawn over him for the rest of his life. 

He shakes his head. “Yeah, no. Don’t wanna mess up my face, you know? Anyway, you shouldn’t fight in front of girls.” 

What he keeps to himself is how, after the initial shock of being in the same room as three little kids, he’d only felt relief at the fact that the ordeal was over. That he didn’t have to ask her out after all and didn’t have to spend the next few weeks in a restless panic about how he would talk to her if they would bump into each other again after it all went wrong; all the usual symptoms of his attempts at talking to a girl. 

Instead, he was free to just go back downstairs to his regular life, the matter having been taken out of his hands. Even if she had been single, there’s no way he could take a woman that beautiful out on a casual dinner a couple of times and then forget about it. And the thought of anything more than that makes him want to jump right back on a plane to Thailand. 

He wants something simple. 

He wants something that won’t tie his heart up in knots.

He wants to know exactly when the period of getting over someone is supposed to end. 

Noya slaps him on the side of the arm and gives him one of his crinkly-eyed smiles. “Plenty more fish in the sea, buddy.” His eyes go wide as he looks past Tanaka to whatever is behind him. “And speaking of, there’s my fish.”

He skips over to the door where Asahi is standing with a soft smile on his face and his tool kit in one hand.

“Hey guys,” he says, bringing an arm around Noya as if on instinct when he leans into Asahi’s side. They’ve never been big on PDA as far as Tanaka can remember - more so Asahi’s reservations than Noya’s, he thinks - but over the time they’ve known each other, he’s definitely noticed how much their comfort has grown when they’re around him. It’s probably a combination of Asahi relaxing more as time goes on as well as the natural gift of contentment that comes with falling in love. That much, he does know from experience. “Where’s the damage?” 

Tanaka points to his ceiling. “Upstairs, she’s waiting for you. Thanks for coming out like this, dude.”

“No problem,” Asahi says. “Can’t have you drowning in here, can we?” He looks down at Noya “Although, you made it sound much worse than it actually is.” He ruffles Noya’s nest of hair for good measure. It’s honestly incredible how different Noya is around him. Starry-eyed, agreeable, still loud and excitable, but the very definition of a delighted puppy out on his first walk, rather than a bulldog ready to pounce. 

“How about I make it up by buying us all some breakfast after you’re done?”

“ _I'll_ buy,” Tanaka says, raising his hand. “It’s me you’re doing the favour for, after all.”

Asahi blushes. “You don’t… you really don’t have to do that…”

“We’ll go halfsies,” Noya chimes in cheerfully. “It’s technically still my apartment, after all.” He smiles up at Asahi and that seems to be enough to win the argument. 

Tanaka scrolls through his phone once Asahi has made his way upstairs, looking for a nearby restaurant that he hasn’t eaten at yet and resisting the urge to listen in on his neighbour’s soft, low voice through the ceiling. 

Noya’s cackling disrupts him and Tanaka looks over to see him laughing at his phone. 

“I think they broke Asahi,” he giggles and puts his phone under Tanaka’s nose so he can read the text. 

**Asahi Azumane:** _Oh my god, Nishi, there are three of the most adorable kids here that I’ve ever seen in my life!!!_

Tanaka smirks. “What was that you said about me being a baby daddy? Might wanna start reading some parenting books, buddy.”

The wide-eyed, horrified look on Noya’s face that he receives in return makes up for every bit of awkwardness he’s experienced in the last 24 hours. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies!!! 
> 
> This is a project I'll be working on leading up to Tanakiyo week which is taking place in July! As you can see, the chapter count is undetermined, because I need to figure out exactly how long this story will take to develop, even if I do know what I want it to be. I'm so excited to be working on this, it's been on my mind for AGES and I'm SO happy to have this fanweek as an excuse to work on it. This is probably one of my favourites, if not my MOST favourite rarepair in HQ and it's my OTP for both these characters <3
> 
> As usual beautiful people, I am a non-manga person, so please keep that in mind if you're sweet enough to leave a comment! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy the ride!
> 
> *
> 
> Thanks to the amazing [mobpsycho100l](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mobpsycho100) for the beta read.
> 
> *
> 
> Follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/misssnowfox) to spam me with tanakiyo feels <3

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATED A/N
> 
> I can't thank you enough for all the lovely words you've had to say about my fic, but I've decided, at least for the time being, to disable comments on all my fics up to this point. New fics will have comments enabled, but email notifications turned off. This has nothing to do with any negative experiences with anyone commenting (as you can see if you read, it's all very very kind), but I've just found the experience a little too overwhelming for me personally in terms of responding and no matter how many people tell me not to worry, it's not going away, and I know the more I write the more it'll frustrate me. I didn't want to let new people comment on the story and feel ignored or left out because they thought I refused to reply to them. So the best way for me to do that is just to disable all fics where there are already existing comments. I know this can be horribly frustrating for some folks, so if you really would like to get in touch with me, I LOVE talking to new people and you an reach me via my twitter (linked in the A/N) or through my discord handle which is Roxanne#6113
> 
> I love you all and if you happen to find this fic after this A/N was written I hope you enjoy it and I love you all!


End file.
